RR Nina Beckett - Chapter 14

PREVIOUS CHAPTER    | START FROM THE BEGINNING

Reduction & Relocation: Nina Beckett

Chapter 14 - Going Home with Jenna Hernandez

[February 05, 2010]

It had been over an hour since Jane had glued David to the inside of Jenna’s pale pink Nikes and as the hispanic intern removed her gray sock, light flooded into his cavernous prison.  Her swift removal of the sock resulted in a whoosh of foot-flavored air being pulled along with it out of the sneaker, allowing David a few breaths of comparatively fresh air.  It would be short-lived, however, as David saw that same gray sock reapproaching the mouth of Jenna’s left sneaker. Although this time, the terrified, near-microscopic man counted five toes excitedly wiggling within the gray cotton, arranged from largest to smallest, burrowing into the smelly cave to join him. 

“Oh, god no!” David wailed, watching the behemoth toes scrunching and extending, as if crawling like giant monsters along the faded sole.  They seemed so far away but with each scrunch, the toes traveled what seemed to him hundreds of feet.  Even as they teased the gaping mouth of the sneaker, David struggled to break free from the glue.  It was basically a child’s arts and crafts project material, but David’s weakness could never be underestimated or understated.  

They were getting closer and closer, the friction of sock against sole so loud David thought his eardrums might rupture.  The toes had scrunched up again, so close to David he could feel the immense heat they were generating.  They were so much bigger than him!  And yet, comparatively speaking, they were just five little pawns being propelled forward by the incomprehensible strength and power of her colossal foot.  The smell intensified as fresh sweat mingled with the old, creating a cocktail of odors that made his stomach churn. The heat was stifling, and the air grew thick and humid, making it even harder to breathe.

With the final scrunch completed, Jenna’s toes shot upward and beyond David, moving faster than the speed of light.  He heard the tips of her toes hitting the roof, the shoe suspended thousands of feet over his head and he just stared up in awe at the underside of her sock.  

“Please don’t–”

Jenna Hernandez’s toes came crashing down, settling cozily into her sneaker.  Each of her five toes aligned to near perfection with the already established toe prints in the sole.

Up to this moment in his life, there was no experience for David quite like that first step.  He was lucky enough to have been glued such that he nestled between Jenna’s toes as opposed to being pummeled underneath them.  But even so, the dingey gray sock acted like cotton-fiber webbing as the intern’s toes flexed, and the course material of her sock pressed in firmly against David like a muggy, oppressive blanket as large as the sky. 

As Jenna stood up, the pressure increased, driving her foot down onto the insole, crushing David beneath it. The overwhelming force pressed him deeper into the gritty surface, embedding him in the worn, thin cushion like the particles of dirt and dead skin that surrounded him. 

That first step seemed to last a lifetime in his mind.  With each passing microsecond, those toes, so small compared to the rest of her, were accepting an incredible burden of weight without even the slightest complaint.  Only a fraction of that burden was passing onto David, but it was already too much.  The weight was unbearable, and the friction of her movements scraped against his skin, causing sharp bursts of pain.

He felt his body flattening as her full weight came to settle atop her left foot and if David wasn’t glued to the faded, cracking sole, he’d have been swept up into that complicated weaving of dirty cotton fiber.  

Another step down.  And another. Each one grinding more of the dirty cotton fibers, molding to contact every square micrometer of his naked body. A normal man would be dead…but David was no normal man.  

Another agonizing step, imparting so much weight on his pathetic body.

She was leaving the locker room.

She was leaving the lab.

Jenna Hernandez was going home for the weekend…and she had no idea of the tiny, involuntary stowaway glued in her left Nike sneaker.

The potent mixture of dirt and sweat grew stronger with every passing moment trapped under the oppressive weight of Jenna’s foot. He could feel Jenna’s sock already starting to develop hints of dampness, the tiny square of fabric that his body contacted becoming increasingly saturated with her sweat. The musty accumulation of dirt and grime contributed to the noxious fumes, awoken and catalyzed by the smoldering heat that, like David, couldn’t escape the sneaker. God only knew how many months—or even years—of walking it took for Jenna to build up this level of putridity.

The insole was an arid, gritty, and grimy desert of a landscape.  Now, however, as she continued her walk with David pinned under her muggy toes, the environment of her sneaker became a sweltering swamp of immense pressure and heat. Jenna's footfall compressed the insole, squeezing the air out in a foul burst of musty, sweat-soaked stench. David's senses were overwhelmed by the rancid fumes, his nose assaulted by the acrid, sour smell of sweat and earth. The air was thick with humidity and the cloying odor of worn-out sneakers–and David nearly gagged at the thought of his lungs filling with the particles of dirt, dead skin, and foot funk courtesy of Jenna.

Somewhere around the 100th step, David disassociated from his cursed body, his skin gleaming with the residue of the smoothed-over glue that was already starting to feel weakened by the humid sneaker’s tropical climate. He’d been pummeled so thoroughly by Jenna’s innocent steps that the sock’s fabric rubbing against his nude skin felt like sandpaper, leaving him raw and tender. The hundred or so pounds of force applied over his miniscule body relented suddenly.  She must have been sitting down…maybe resting.  Maybe driving?  Maybe getting a piggy-back ride?  David had no way of knowing…but whatever the reason, it didn’t last long.  Jenna was back to walking…and David was back to flattening like a foot pancake under her oppressive, bullying toes.

He couldn’t think straight anymore. All that remained was that persistent, biological desire to survive as the gigantic toes smeared the increasingly damp sock webbing against his battered body. Her toes were enormous, each one a massive, fleshy pillar that pressed and rolled over him with relentless force. He could see the intricate patterns of her skin, the tiny ridges and grooves that were magnified to his shrunken eyes. They moved with a terrifying grace, the subtle shifts and wriggles sending fresh waves of pressure and heat through his tiny frame.

His mind further devolved to frantic bargaining–god, fate, karma, or even the devil herself (complete with her black, thick-framed glasses).  He would have sold his soul for a single breath of fresh air–for a single minute outside of this noxious oven.  David would have happily scurried back into Dr. Becotte’s toe ring.  Hell, he’d even be okay with it if she put it on…at least her feet smelled nice!  

‘God, I can’t believe how well I know the smell of not one, not two, but three girls’ feet.’

Right around the moment when David was starting to see hallucinations of angels interwoven within the tight cotton fiber matrix of Jenna’s sock, the hispanic intern’s foot abruptly retreated from his body.  He watched with dizzying speed as her whole foot escaped from the shoe…or rather, the shoe was escaping from her foot.   

David instantly understood what the astronauts must have felt when they rocketed up into outer space.  It couldn’t have been any worse than being trapped in a sneaker that had just been carelessly kicked off of an unaware 19-year old girl’s foot. He soared through the air with dizzying speed and he counted at least 2 full rotations before the carpeted floor rushed up (or down?  Who could tell?!) to meet him.

After the kinetic energy of Jenna’s careless kick had worn away, David could finally breathe.  Cold air rushing into the sneaker was both welcome and overwhelming at the same time.  He’d gotten so used to the uncirculated, recycled air filtered so heavily by Jenna’s foot that the aroma of her frozen dinner was almost unrecognizable.  

The pale pink sneaker had landed in a heaping mess at the front door of the intern’s one-bedroom apartment, mixed in with an assortment of other sneakers, boots, and flip flops.  They all had one thing in common: Jenna’s feet.  David winced to recognize that he was now also part of this humiliating club.

As if it were the design of a vengeful god (or goddess), the pink Nike prison had landed on its side, angled just perfectly so that David could see the young Hispanic intern plop down on her sofa, sinking into the worn cushion and she propped her sock-clad feet up on the coffee table.  David could see the young woman was munching on her TV dinner, remindin  David of the incredible hunger he’d been feeling…as if there wasn’t enough stimulation already!  Jenna had changed since coming home, and who could blame her?  She’d had a long day at work, after all.  But it didn’t seem fair that David, who now considered himself in some capacity an RR employee, essentially worked 24/7 with no pay.  When was his break?  When was he allowed to actually be more than several human-sized inches away from the strong aroma of women’s feet?  

Not tonight, apparently…

A cozy, oversized sweatshirt hung loosely over her petite frame while a pair of checkered apartment shorts that could have easily doubled as a headband hugged her thighs snuggly. From this far away, David could fool himself into believing that he was looking at a normal sized girl.  That her cute little toes wiggling absent-mindedly hadn’t just utterly dominated and punished him.  That he could have walked up to her and said hi, took a seat next to her and cuddled her in his huge arms.  In reality, David was more likely to be cuddled between her huge toes.

Due to the haphazard nature of Jenna’s removal of her sneakers, the floor upon which David was adhered had become a wall.  And as miniscule as he was, gravity still had an impact.  As time went on, the Elmer’s glue holding him in place weakened. Jenna had long since turned off her TV and went to bed, turning out the lights and leaving David alone and cold in the living room…and the Elmer’s glue continued to weaken.

David's night alone at the entrance of Jenna’s apartment, still encased within her sneaker, was a ceaseless episode of discomfort. The oppressive heat of Jenna’s sock-clad foot had subsided and took with it an appreciated amount of odor.  But now, several hours into the night, David was wishing Jenna’s foot was there to keep him warm, even if it meant he had to smell and breathe the vile foot funk. He lay there shivering against his weakening bonds, exhausted from hours of struggling against the glue until he was barely conscious. It felt as if he’d just closed his eyes to fall asleep when dawn’s light began to filter into the room. Through the small opening of the shoe, he could see the blurry, towering figure of movement in the distance. 

His tiny heart raced with a mix of dread and despair.

He watched as the morning beauty came into focus with her tousled black hair and bright brown eyes, stretching and yawning. David couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked as she put her hair up into a messy morning bun.  What a stark contrast to the grim, fetid prison he was trapped in all night.  He knew her foot better than he knew her as a person.

 Jenna reached for her phone and tapped rapidly on the screen. Even in his dire state, 

"Hey, Sarah!" Jenna's cheerful voice boomed around him, causing his tiny form to vibrate. "Yeah, I’m up early. Just getting ready to meetcha there….Mm-hmm…Yup!....Oh yeah, I know, I’m so excited!...Don’t worry, I’ll look after ya.  This is like my eighth 5k run so trust me, I know what I’m doing, haha!”

David’s blood ran cold as Jenna’s words sunk in. 

A 5k run. 

Is that what Jane was talking about?!  Did she know all along?!

The thought of enduring even more pounding and friction, especially with the long duration of a run, was horrifying. 

“Jenna!  Jenna please, help me!” 

He tried to call out, to make any noise that might alert her to his presence, but his voice was nothing more than a faint squeak in the vast cavern of the shoe.

"That’s a good question!  Yeah, I definitely recommend wearing a lucky pair of sneakers.  I’ve got mine right here,” Jenna continued, her voice carrying a playful tone. “...Oh jeez, I don’t even know.  Four years now?  Maybe longer?  They’re just so darn durable.  And I’ve beaten them down badly, too.  They’re so broken in and comfy I can even wear them without socks.”

David’s horror intensified. Without socks, there would be no barrier between him and the full, unrelenting force of her bare foot! The sweat, the heat, the direct pressure—all of it would be magnified tenfold. “Okay, I’m walking out now.  Just gotta put my shoes on.  I’ll see ya there, girl.”  

He watched helplessly as Jenna stuffed her phone into the waistband of her magenta running shorts and walked towards David.

She picked up the sneaker, her casual, unaware grip shaking David as she turned it right side up. From his tiny vantage point, he could see her bare toes wiggling slightly as she prepared to slide her foot into the shoe. The insole, already grimy and foul, seemed to emit a new wave of odor as it awaited the press of her skin.

Jenna lifted her foot, positioning it above the opening of the sneaker. David’s world seemed to slow down as he watched her toes descend, their pale skin smooth and puffy. He could see the fine lines and curves of her toes, each one a massive, looming structure compared to his minuscule form.

As her toes made contact with the edge of the sneaker, David screamed—a tiny, pitiful sound lost in the cavernous, smelly space. The massive digits slid into the shoe, pushing the air before them and creating a gust of warm, moist wind that carried the sharp scent of her skin. The space around him grew darker as her foot filled the sneaker, the pressure increasing steadily as her toes sought out their usual position. Her big toe and middle toe wiggling into their respective toe prints, flanking David on either side.

Her entire foot finally settled in, the warm, slightly damp skin pressing him against the insole with an overwhelming force. And just like that, David wasn’t cold anymore.  

“I can’t do this!  I can’t do this!  Jenna, seriously!” David shouted, occasionally having to blow raspberries to get the taste of her toes off his lips.

David lay trapped beneath the suffocating weight of Jenna's bare toes above him and he could feel the deafening vibrations against his back caused by the shifting gravel under the soles of Jenna’s shoes.  She was walking toward the 5k starting line. 

"Hey, Sarah!" Jenna's voice boomed overhead as she greeted her friend. "Ready for this?"

"Absolutely!" Sarah replied. "It's a perfect day for a run. How are those old sneakers holding up?"

Jenna chuckled, wiggling her toes slightly and causing fresh waves of pressure and friction for David. "They're fine, but I forgot how sweaty they get without socks.”

“Uh-oh!  I hope they hold up for the whole run!" Sarah laughed.

“Oh, don’t worry about these bad boys.” Jenna said, jogging in place.  “They’re here to take a beating.”

David waited for a gunshot..or for someone to shout ‘go’. He didn’t hear any of that, but he knew the race had started when he felt the strongest squeeze of her toes yet.  The previous day's torment under her sock-clad foot had been unbearable, but that was nothing compared to this.  He’d have taken that all day every day if he could avoid being under Jenna during a 5k run.  

And without her socks on, it was infinitely worse. David didn’t realize how important that thin, dingy barrier of gray cotton was until now.  Without it, Jenna’s bare toes pressed directly against his tiny body.  The sock had at least provided a small buffer, absorbing some of the sweat and reducing the friction. Now, every movement of her toes was a fresh wave of agony, the coarse fabric of the insole scraping against his raw skin. The slick, slippery wet, plush monsters were squeezing the life out of him. 

The rhythmic pounding of Jenna's footsteps maintained with no relenting..and every step she took had David wondering if he would survive another. Sweat began to bead on her skin, the salty moisture seeping into the insole and mingling with the grime around David and adding a fresh layer to David himself. The heat inside the shoe rivaled a cranked-up sauna, and then something happened.  Something that David had been trying to do himself for dozens of hours…and it looked like Jenna’s toes were able to do it in just a few minutes.

The glue was weakening as Jenna's foot sweat soaked into it, the adhesive bond dissolving under the relentless assault of moisture and friction. The tiny hold he had on the insole loosened with each step, the constant motion causing him to shift slightly with every impact. David now found himself trying to hold onto the disintegrating glue as if it were an unlatched seatbelt on an active roller coaster.

The 5k continued and Jenna’s foot began to sweat more profusely. The dampness spread, soaking the insole and turning it into a slick, slippery surface. David's tiny body was battered by the shifting terrain, the rough fabric scraping against his skin and leaving him raw and tender. He could feel his grip slipping, the glue barely holding him in place as Jenna's toes flexed and shifted above him.

Suddenly, with a particularly hard step, the glue gave way entirely. David was flung loose, tumbling through the dark, humid confines of the shoe. The force of Jenna's movements sent him sprawling, the slick insole providing no traction as he rattled about inside the shoe. He was tossed from side to side, each impact jarring and disorienting.

As he slid forward, he felt himself becoming wedged between Jenna's sweaty toes. The soft, damp skin closed around him like a bear trap, the heat and moisture overwhelming his senses. Her toes flexed and squeezed, trapping him even more tightly as she ran. The salty taste of her sweat filled his mouth, the acrid smell of her foot pressing in from all sides.

“How we doing?” He heard Jenna say. 

“Not good!” David wailed…but he knew that Jenna wasn’t asking him.

“Feeling good!” Sarah cheered. She sounded out of breath-more winded than Jenna and certainly less winded than poor David. 

The 5k finally ended and not a moment too soon. David was beyond dazed and disoriented, and yet he still joined in with the cheers of the normal, regular sized people waiting at the finish line–the lucky sons of bitches who didn’t have to smell Jenna’s feet.  His tiny body had been unapologetically marked by the Latina runners' perspiration, grime, and odor. He was battered and bruised, sweat-soaked and gritty; had he not been cursed with this resilience, those plush toes would have smooshed him into paste…and yet here he still was, fighting them off as if they were obsessed women fighting for his attention and punishing him for not giving enough. Jenna, oblivious to all of this torture going on in her left sneaker, came to a huffing stop, her breathing heavy yet even and controlled as she and Sarah walked over to a bench.

“Great run, Jenna!” Sarah said, her voice ringing from the heavens. “My feet are killing me though. I can’t wait to get these shoes off.”

“Same here,” Jenna replied, sitting down beside her. “I always forget how rough these old sneakers can be without socks.”

David felt a shift as Jenna sat down and began to remove her sneakers. Her toes flexed and squeezed him one last time before light flooding in as she pulled her glistening foot free. Much to David’s dissatisfaction, he was not permitted to watch the foot leave his world in her sneaker–he’d been forced to join the foot on its departure.

“Jenna, help me!” David squeaked, snuggly trapped between her toes. The smell of her sweat and the musty odor of the sneaker dissipated as fresh air mixed with the stale confines of the shoe. The air was so fresh it actually provoked a long string of coughs from David who was not used to clean air unfiltered by Jenna’s feet.

Jenna wiggled her toes, the movement jostling David slightly. He was wedged tightly between them, his tiny body pressed against the warm, sweaty skin. The space was filled with sock lint, grime, and dead skin, tiny particles that clung to his sweat-soaked form. The lint and grime were his constant companions, mingling with the slickness of her sweat and the rough texture of her skin. He felt utterly pathetic, surrounded by these microscopic bits of filth that had become his peers in this grotesque landscape.

He looked up, the gap between Jenna’s toes providing a narrow view of her towering form. She was breathtakingly beautiful, her sweat-slicked skin glowing in the morning light, her messy hair pulled back into a ponytail. From his minuscule perspective, she was a powerful goddess, unaware of his existence.  

Or was she?

David saw her eyes lock with him and his heart leapt into his throat.  He waved his arms wildly, coughing sporadically as the rough lint and detritus between her toes rubbed roughly against his face and body.

“I definitely need a pedicure after this,” Jenna said, flexing her toes again, unknowingly squeezing David. “My feet are so gross right now.” Lint, dirt, and debris clung to her soaking wet feet and as she wiped the particles away, David put two and two together.  Realizing that he might be mistaken for them and dislodged from her foot, David did the only thing he could think of.  He burrowed in deeper–like a terrified and vulnerable wooden creature trying to hide–between Jenna’s toes.

Sarah laughed. “You and me both. We should go together; my treat.”

David felt a surge of panic as Jenna’s toes flexed again, the pressure briefly increasing before easing off. The grime and lint around him shifted slightly, the slickness of her sweat making everything slippery and unstable. He was exhausted, his body aching from the constant pressure and friction, every movement a fresh wave of pain.

The girls reached some consensus on when they’d get their pedicures.  Not today, thank god.  But no sooner had David regained his composure did Jenna stuff her muggy feet back into her sneakers.  She was going home.  On one hand, David was about to have a panic attack thinking about Jenna’s long walk home…but on the other hand, he felt some perverted, misplaced swell of pride. 

He’d conquered his first 5k.

~